Nurse talking about a patient and their reason for admission to other nurses?

[Nurseynurse1116]

Is it a hipaa violation for a nurse to be talking about a patient (that wasn’t assigned to them) that has been discharged over a month ago?

Without giving too much info here’s a little backstory....

patient came in for x diagnosis over a month ago.. the patients relative which we didn’t know at the time got hired onto our unit. I was told from another nurse (not sure how she even knows this info) “did you know so and so is going to be working with us?... the relative (she gave the name) was here for *insert diagnosis*

turns out the new hire found out that the nurse had informed everyone that x patient (which is the relative) was in here for x diagnosis.

can the nurse who started bringing up the new hires relative get in trouble? Sorry for any confusion just don’t want to insert too much info but get some insight.

[caliotter3]

If the new hire complains to management, I would assume someone would get in trouble. However, the new hire may refrain because they don't want to get on the bad side of their coworkers. There is a lesson to be learned here, whether or not people (and I mean plural, more than one person talked) get in trouble this time around.

[kp2016]

A nurse who is not currently caring for the patient, identified said patient by name and diagnosis to a person also not directly involved in their care to basically gossip about them.

This is the definition of a HIPAA violation. The nurse who initiated this conversation is likely to be given at a formal warning for breaching HIPAA and could be fired and reported to the BON. Anyone else who was a part of the conversation could honestly expect the same.

Gossip happens but this is a great example of what we need to be careful to avoid. Hopefully they let this go with a warning and a HIPAA refresher.